Book 2: Plunder

The year was 2352 CE. History had been completely shaped by the climate disaster of the 21st century, and people viewed it like the religious saw the original sin: An event that happened too long ago to feel reachable had forever changed the circumstances for everyone who would ever live. People vaguely formed into two groups regarding the issue, the stoics and the defeatists. While the stoics wanted to correct the course of humanity, the defeatists wanted to give up and coast until the end of humanity.

However, near the end of the 21st century came a concerning development that put the devastation of the climate disaster to shame. Fascist parties all across the world united. Only one needed to win at first, then a cycle began over the course of the 22nd and 23rd centuries. Based on a 20th century playbook that the US extensively used to overthrow democratically elected leaders in the global south, fascists in power coordinated to subvert elections throughout the world and merged the countries until there was only one country, the United World of America.

The president of the UWA, only known as X, had been alive for hundreds of years through frankly bizarre medical procedures pioneered by 21st century billionaires. Of course, these life-extending measures were only available to the wealthy. X was beyond wealthy, and he let everyone else around him die so that nobody could ever know who he was or what he looked like. Some say that after hundreds of years of life, it loses meaning. They say one’s soul is eternally separated from their body. At this point, it may be true for X. He is without a doubt the most evil man in human history, and an uncountable number of pogroms have taken place under his multi-century rule. Also during his tenure, he oversaw the creation of many state run companies, such as SCOP.

However, it was no longer the 23rd century, it was the 24th. In the beginning of the 2300’s, the planet resulting from the past several hundred years of policy was no longer blue from space, it was gray. Most plants wouldn’t grow because the sun didn’t shine enough. The sea was corrosive enough to melt ships after extended periods of time. The air was difficult to breathe. But then came a solution. Really, it was the same old solution as always, but updated to fit the modern times. Interdimensional portal technology had serious breakthroughs that allowed the UWA to dump their trash into different dimensions and timelines.

Unfortunately, there was a problem with this approach. The earth only had a finite amount of material. What would happen when it ran out? When it was all turned into garbage and dumped through a portal, the earth would shrink until it disappeared unless action was taken. That’s when a state-run company known as PlunderCorp was founded. Its mission? To harvest raw materials from food, wood, stone, and ores to the ocean water and the air we breathe itself from alternate dimensions. After a dimension’s planet had been thoroughly stripped of resources, it would be filled with trash made from matter that likely came from a previous victim of PlunderCorp. This was the machine that sustained consumerism, and it directly informed every part of the world’s culture.